As far as I can see, or not see in my case, light levels are lower now with the L*Ds over the HPS lights we had before.  :
That might just be my perception though. 
We don't feel safe going out at night any more. 

As far as I can see, or not see in my case, light levels are lower now with the L*Ds over the HPS lights we had before.  :
That might just be my perception though. 
We don't feel safe going out at night any more. 

Depends of the installation. At least over here there is more light, seems like in your case they really wanted to be cheap and they did't want to invest much in powerfull enough fixtures, or they bougt cheap Alibaba junk that states do be 100W when best can do is 30W. Seems like they wanted to swich to LED as soon as possible there. 

Depends of the installation. At least over here there is more light, seems like in your case they really wanted to be cheap and they did't want to invest much in powerfull enough fixtures, or they bougt cheap Alibaba junk that states do be 100W when best can do is 30W. Seems like they wanted to swich to LED as soon as possible there.

Unfortunately true, and because it's the accountants that are determining what to buy, they buy the cheapest of the cheap.!   
Never mind that they will have to be replaced almost right away, so long as they save money that year they don't care about future savings. 

and because it's the accountants that are determining what to buy, they buy the cheapest of the cheap.!

I thought that phenomena was only limited to here, but I see it is spread worldwide. Without digging in politics it goes like this: The accountants request x quantity of money for a public project (LED upgrade in this case), but they really expend e.g. 40% of the founds and they keep the 60%. That works usually by buying the stuff to a fake company that emmits the bill with a cost of the entire found given, that "company" (managed by the involved people) will supply super cheap stuff that costed a fraction and the rest is kept and splitted among the involved people.

I thought that phenomena was only limited to here, but I see it is spread worldwide. Without digging in politics it goes like this: The accountants request x quantity of money for a public project (LED upgrade in this case), but they really expend e.g. 40% of the founds and they keep the 60%. That works usually by buying the stuff to a fake company that emmits the bill with a cost of the entire found given, that "company" (managed by the involved people) will supply super cheap stuff that costed a fraction and the rest is kept and splitted among the involved people.

I wasn't talking about fiscal mismanagement, so let's keep the talk away from politics.

My point was that the lighting engineers go to the accountants saying 'We want to buy 2,000 of this lantern at £100 each and they'll last 15 years.'
The accountants say that 'oh no, there's only £10,000 in the budget for buying lanterns, buy ones that cost £50.'
Engineers say at that price they'll only last 3 years, it will end up costing £30,000. 
Accountant answers 'so what, it's only this year that matters. 

I prefer LED instead of HPS. I don't like the yellow-white light.  In my HPS lights I always screw in MH or convert them to MV.
Here were the streets lit by flourescent tubes and crossroads and cycle paths by MV and the streets were fine equable lit without bigger shadows. Later they replaced the old lanterns by cut-off HPS lanterns with modern reflectors. They blind and the street was unregular lit with big shadows. Besides it looked like in the red-light district.
The LED isn't bad at all. There are good ones but expensive and they do light well and that with long life time. Sadly many cities here bought the cheapest ones so they don't need to wonder what will happen in some less years...

I'll take Hps light any day led is the just plain and boring they have cool start unlike the hps lights.

I wasn't talking about fiscal mismanagement, so let's keep the talk away from politics.

My point was that the lighting engineers go to the accountants saying 'We want to buy 2,000 of this lantern at £100 each and they'll last 15 years.'
The accountants say that 'oh no, there's only £10,000 in the budget for buying lanterns, buy ones that cost £50.'
Engineers say at that price they'll only last 3 years, it will end up costing £30,000. 
Accountant answers 'so what, it's only this year that matters. 

It is even worse:
A city council wants to replace lights, lets say 2000 of them.
So they launch a public request for 2000 lights suitable for the city.
2 bidders come in:
One offering ones with 15 years guarantee for $100each,
Second one with a model estimated to last 5 years for $50 each.
Now the council organizes assembly, where they vote for the first supplier.
But the 2'nd one isn't happy to loose there, so they accuse the council of "neglecting good care of public money" and ask the court to forbid the finalization to the deal till court final decision. At least the project is put on hold for months till court final ruling. And then often the ruling ends up bad, because "buying the more expensive is clearly violation of the duty to take good care of public money, when the cheaper does fulfill all requirements set for the bidding" is quite hard to defend against. Plus very often it includes accusations like "The other company must have bribed the council to select the more expensive stuff, when the cheaper fulfills all state requirements the same way". Arguing with the first supplier being more than 30% cheaper for bottom line wont do much, when "the lifetime was not in formal requirements so it means it must be irrelevant".
Yes, this is how "corruption prevention" laws work in the real life.

One or two such cycles and you as council member wont vote for anything than "the cheapest" on paper and hope it will hold at least a bit.

I wasn't talking about fiscal mismanagement, so let's keep the talk away from politics.

My point was that the lighting engineers go to the accountants saying 'We want to buy 2,000 of this lantern at £100 each and they'll last 15 years.'
The accountants say that 'oh no, there's only £10,000 in the budget for buying lanterns, buy ones that cost £50.'
Engineers say at that price they'll only last 3 years, it will end up costing £30,000. 
Accountant answers 'so what, it's only this year that matters. 

James May(from Top Gear) has some proper word for them 
Lamp failure:Stonks